Small businesses have detected a significant uptick in the appetite for banks to lend in the year to March, according to the latest Department of Finance-commissioned SME Credit Demand Survey.

Some 61 per cent of more than 1,500 respondents surveyed in the six months through March said that they believe that banks are lending, up from 45 per cent observed in the correspondent period to the end of March 2017, according to the report.

The survey series, conducted by Fitzpatrick Associates in association with Behaviour and Attitudes, found that 55 per cent of SMEs expect the business climate to improve in the next six months, up from 49 per cent in March 2017.

Profit

For the fifth year in a row, there was an increase in the reported number of small companies making a profit, rising to 64 per cent in March 2018 from 40 per cent in 2013.

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"It is encouraging that there has been a notable increase in the number of respondents that feel that banks are increasing lending," said Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.

“The survey has also captured that, notwithstanding the uncertainty of Brexit, Irish SMEs are more confident in the continued improvement of the business climate.”